VegasBeat — Timothy McDarrah: Topless dancer has Inna beauty as well

Thursday, May 6, 2004 | 10:38 a.m.

VegasBeat appears Sunday through Friday in the Las Vegas Sun. Timothy McDarrah can be reached at tim@lasvegassun.com or at (702) 259-4096.

Introducing Inna Bashta, the world's first "20" -- she's a "10" both in brains and in beauty.

She is a featured topless dancer in "Showgirls," The Rio revue, and she graduates May 15 from UNLV with a degree in chemistry.

"And I have been offered a scholarship to stay on and get my Ph.D.," Bashta told us.

The native of Ukraine's summa cum laude studies had a nuclear chemistry emphasis. Her first college degree, from the University of Moscow, is in theater direction.

"I went to a special school in Ukraine that integrated the sciences and art. We were experimental bunnies to see how art helps children learn science better."

Bashta's parents, who encouraged both her academic and onstage achievements, will not attend the graduation. "They could not get visas out in time," Bashta said.

These days, she studies backstage with fellow "Showgirls" performer Mitzi Cox, who on May 14 will get her law degree from UNLV's Boyd School of Law.

Then they are off to Paris for the summer; "Showgirls" closes at the end of the month to be replaced by a show called "Erocktica."

Trump visit

Donald Trump makes a pit stop in Las Vegas on Friday.

"First I am going to Chicago to see ("The Apprentice" winner) Bill Rancic and check on my project there and then after Las Vegas I am going to California to check on my project there (The Estates at Trump National Golf Club in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif.)," he told us in a phone conversation from his Trump Tower office Wednesday afternoon.

"Basically I am coming to your town to get the lay of the land. I have a meeting with Mayor (Oscar) Goodman, who wants to get me interested in some downtown development, and I am seeing a few other people."

Trump said his previously announced partnership with developer Phil Ruffin was still a go, and "would be more on the residential front than anything else."

"Other than that, I am looking to build or buy something that really gets me into the Las Vegas market. I have a Nevada gaming license now, you know."

Let the games begin.

Career day

Doctors, lawyers, accountants, journalists.

Yawn.

The guy who really attracted some attention at Career Day at Andre Agassi's College Preparatory Academy on Tuesday was Byron Bordeaux.

He does a dead-on Jimi Hendrix impression in the "Hail Hail Rock and Roll" show playing at Whiskey Pete's in Primm.

Bordeaux, who performed, said he was most surprised that so many of the kids knew who the rock legend was. Hendrix died nearly 34 years ago.

After seeing Bordeaux perform, we suggest the Hughes brothers, Albert and Allen, give him a call. The movie producer brothers ("Dead Presidents") are casting for a new Hendrix film bio. We read that they are considering Andre 3000 from OutKast as Hendrix.

The feeling here is that while Andre is certainly talented, he is a lot less, uh, experienced, than Bordeaux at portraying Hendrix.

Guest stars

We reported last week on Jay Leno's stellar guest list for his week in Vegas, which kicks off Monday when "The Tonight Show" broadcasts out of Paris Las Vegas.

Well, the next guy on the NBC late-night lineup, Carson Daly, is taping at the Hard Rock Hotel from May 18 to May 22, and he, too, has booked some pretty impressive bold-faced names.

Scheduled guests include Val Kilmer, David Spade, Tom Arnold, Shannen Doherty, Joe Rogan, Warren Sapp, Gabrielle Union, Michael Clarke Duncan, David Cross, Kathy Griffin, Jerry O'Connell, Jason Bateman, Harland Williams and Oscar De La Hoya.

Musical performances by Wayne Newton, Liz Phair, Juliette Lewis and the Licks, Ben Kweller, Sparta and The Killers are also on tap.

Free tickets to the tapings are available through NBC's Web site, NBC.com.

Not me

Comedy legend George Carlin says that some of the Internet rants currently being circulated and attributed to him, including one called "Bad American," are not his work.

On his Web site, Carlin says: "Because some of this stuff is really lame, it's embarrassing to see my name on it."

Carlin returns to the MGM Grand's Hollywood Theatre on May 20. He also has a new book of observations coming out in the fall, "When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?" (Hyperion)

Speaking of legendary comedians, we got an e-mail the other day from our friend Jennifer Lee Pryor, Richard's wife and manager of what she calls his "global -- nay, interplanetary -- empire."

She wants comics in Vegas, and elsewhere, to be aware of a new resource for networking with peers. It is on Prior's Web site, Richardpryor.com.

The site's forum has apparently become a go-to place for comedians to swap info and get feedback on their material from other professionals and from Prior himself.

She has long sought a viable outlet for the multiple sclerosis-afflicted comedian to stay involved with the cutting edge of his first love -- stand-up comedy.

VegasBits

Loss: Andrew Robert Buxton Cavendish, the 11th Duke of Devonshire, died Monday. He was 84. Art and a variety of other treasures accumulated by his family over five centuries was featured at the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art earlier this year ...

Congrats: MGM MIRAGE public relations specialist Fatemah S. Emamzadeh and her six-year boyfriend, Frank Lazzara, a favored barkeep at The Orleans, are getting married Saturday at Reflection Bay Golf Club at Lake Las Vegas. Then they're off to Negril, Jamaica, for a honeymoon.

From Sun wires

Brown to stand trial: An Atlanta judge Wednesday ordered Bobby Brown to stand trial on charges that he hit his entertainer wife, Whitney Houston. Houston also was in court for the five-minute hearing, smiling at Brown before the couple left arm-in-arm.

Campbell wins privacy case: Supermodel Naomi Campbell won her appeal today in her privacy case against a London newspaper that published photographs of her leaving a drug counseling meeting.